Tempo-controller for piano-players.



A. G. MARQUIS. I TEMPO CONTROLLER FOR PIANO PLAYERS.

kPPLiCATION HLED DEC. 2. 1915- Patented Feb. 27, 1917.

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A G. MARQUIS.

TEMPS CONTROLLER FOR PIANO PLAYERS.

APPLICATION FILED DEC.2. I915.

Pamnted Feb. 27, 1917 2 SHEETS-SHEET Z- UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ALEXANDER G. MARQUIS, OF ROCHESTER, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-THIRD TO FRANK KEIPER AND ONE-THIRD TO GEORGE W. RGGERS, BOTH OF ROCHESTER,

NEW YORK.

TEMPO-CONTROLLER FOR PIANO-PLAYERS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Feb. 27, 1917.

Application filed December 2, 1815. Serial Kc. 64,666.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ALEXANDER G. MAR- QUIS, a subject of the King of Great Britain, residing at Rochester, in the county of Morn roe and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Tempo-Controllers for Piano-Players, of which the following is a specification.

The object of my invention is to provide an improved device for controlling the tempo of a piano player and more especially for varying the speed with which the paper web is fed over the tracker board.

This and other objects of the invention will be fully illustrated in the drawings, described in the specification and pointed out in the claims at the end thereof.

In the drawings,

Figure 1 is a front elevation of the tracker board and motor.

Fig. 2 is a vertical section through the motor on the line 2 2 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a vertical section through the tracker board on the line 3*3 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a detail view of a portion of the spool and web showing the tempo perforations Fig. 5 is a sectional view of a variation of the controlling device.

Fig. 6 is a perspective view of the valve and connections and controlling device.

Fig. 7 is a perspective view showing the bottom of the valve shown in dotted lines in Fig. 6.

Fig. 8 is a detail view of the tracker bar with separate openings in the same line for operating the sustaining pedal and the tempo controller.

Fig. 9 is a diagrammatic view of the connections of the controlling device shown in Fig. 5.

In the accompanying drawings like reference numerals indicate like parts.

Automatic piano players are ordinarily operated by a perforated paper web which moves over a tracker board, having a number of openings therein. Such a paper web is indicated by the reference numeral 1 and the tracker board over which it operates is indicated by the reference numeral 2. At the extreme left of the tracker board, as shown in Fig. 1, is a single opening 3 which is directly connected to the vacuum chamber of the motor 5 by a tube a. This motor is of the usual type used in piano players.

Adjacent to this motor is a crank shaft 6 having five cranks therein to which are connected suitable connecting rods that are driven from the various units of the motor. On the crank shaft is provided a sprocket wheel 7 over which passes a chain 8, which in turn passes over a sprocket wheel 9 keyed to the shaft 10 of the traction roller. The paper web 1 is attached to the traction roller and the spool is set in position on suitable pindlcs 11 and 12 on which it rotates idly as the web is drawn forward by the traction roller. As the web is drawn forward it passes over the tracker bar 2 and the perfo rations in the web register with a series of holes shown in the tracker bar causing the movement of the hammers in the piano striking the various notes to correspond therewith. At the left of the paper web is a series of perforations 13 which pass over the opening 8 in the tracker board and permit air to pass directly therethrough and through the tube 4i into the vacuum chamber of the motor, thus reducing the vacuum in the motor below normal. As the speed of the motor depends upon the strength of the vacuum, it will be readily understood that when the vacuum is reduced, the motor will be driven more slowly and this in turn will cause the papenweb l to feed more slowly. In this way a reduction of the speed of the paper web is automatically secured, such reduction of speed occurring as often as the perforations 13 in the web register with the opening 3 in the tracker board.

The opening 3 is preferably larger than the other openings in the tracker board so as to pass a larger amount of air therethrough into the vacuum chamber of the motor, this vacuum chamber being much larger than the vacuum chamber of the pneumatics that operate the keys and requiring the admission of a larger amount of air on that account.

Many piano players are equipped with a pneumatically operated sustaining pedal, which sustaining pedal is operated through an opening in the tracker board similar to the opening 3, a series of perforations sinnlar to the perforations 18 being provided in the paper web therefor, the object being to operate the sustaining pedal while the perforations are passing over the opening provided in the tracker board therefor. The tube 4 can be connected directly to the tube leading to such ()Pfifliiijlfig di'svicc for the sustainii'ig pedal, except that more air must be fed to the motor than to the pneumatic for operating the sustaining pedal and therefore it is desirable to operate these devices more independently of each other.

in Fig. 5 1 have illustrated the opening 3 in the tracker board 1 to which is connected the tube 14:, one branch of which 15, leads to the pneumatic for operating the sustaining pedal or the soft pedal and he other branch 16, leads to the bottom of the pneumatic 17. Tn this pneumatic 17 is provided a diaphragm 18 to which is connected a valve'stem 19, on the lower end of which is fastened a valve 20. A spring 21 is provided around the valve stem which holds the valve normally seated on the inlet 22 in the block 23 which inlet is connected to the vacuum chest of the motor. Around the pneumatic 18 is a bleed hole 24 which equalizes the vacuum on both sides of pneumatic when the opening 3 is closed. An exhaust pipe 25 leads from the upper chamber of the pneumatic 17 to the vacuum chamber of the player. Normally the vacuum that is maintained in the exhaust pipe 25 is communicated through the bleed pipe 241 to both sides of the diaphragm 18 so that the pressure is the same on both sides thereof and while this condition exists, the spring 21 holds the valve 20 seated. When the opening 3 is uncovered by the perforations in the paper web, the air rushes in to the tube 15 to operate the sustaining pedal and through the tube 16, raising the pressure be low the diaphragm 18 and causing it to lift and carry with it the valve 20 which in turn uncovers the opening of the inlet 22 and allows a strong current of air to rush into the motor.

In order to secure the independent operation of either the sustaining pedal or the reduction of the speed of the motor or the simultaneous operation of both of them, a valve is provided which will now be described.

A block 26 is provided having longitudinal and lateral passage ways therein. The top of the block forms a valve seat in which is formed the openings 27, 28 and 29. The tube it connects with the opening 28. The tube 15 connects with the opening 27 and the tube 16 connects with the opening 29. On top of this block 26 slides a valve 30 having the irregular opening 31 therein which is adapted to control the connections between the openings 27, 28 and 29 as will now be described.

@ne position of this opening is shown in dotted lines in Fig. 6. While the valve is in this position the tube 14 is connected to the tube 16. When the valve is moved to the left through half of its movement, the tube 1 1- will be connected to both the tube 15 and nan/nae 1G. l Vhen it moved farther to the left for the whole of its movement, the tube ll will be connected to the tube 15 only. An index scale 32 is provided over which a pointer 38 connected to the valve 30 is provided.

The form shown in Fig. 5 is preferable, in some respects, to that shown in Fig. 1 because paper rolls that are already perforated to operate the sustaining pedal, can in my machine, be made to operate either the sustaining pedal or the tempo regulator or both. Such rolls can be used in connection with the device shown in Fig. 1 to secure the operation of both the sustaining pedal and the tempo regulator, but in such case the perforations 13 and the paper web must cross two openings, shown in Fig. 8, instead of the one opening 3, shown in Fig. 5, one of them leading to the sustaining pedal and the other to the tempo regulator, each working independently of the other. As both of these openings cannot be in line with the openings in the tracker board which govern the striking of the notes, the action of one or the other will be delayed or advanced according to the placing of them.

I claim:

1. In a piano the combination of atracker board and a paper web, a pneumatic motor for driving said web over said board, an intake pipe for admitting air into said m0- tor for varying the vacuum in said motor and thereby change the speed at which it will drive the paper over said board.

2. In a piano player the combination of a tracker board and a paper web having perforations therein, a pneumatic motor for driving said web over said board, a valve for admitting air into said motor, means operated by the passage of said web over said tracker board for lifting said valve to admit air into said motor and reduce the speed of said motor and said web.

3. In a piano player the combination of a tracker board and a paper web having perforations therein, a pneumatic motor for driving said web over said trackerboard, a valve for admitting air into said motor for the purpose of changing the speed thereof, a diaphragm for operating said valve, a casing surrounding said diaphragm, means for partially exhausting the air from said casing on both sides of said diaphragm, means for admitting air to one side of said diaphragm and causing it to move to lift said valve, said means being controlled by the passing of said perforations over said tracker board.

1-. In a piano player the combination of a trackerboard and a paper web having perforations therein, said trackerboard ha ing an opening therein, a motor for driving said paper web over said trackerboard,

said perforations in said paper web being moved over said tracker board to uncover said opening in said trackerboard to admit or shut oi'I' the atmosphere from the inside of said motor to increase or decrease the force with which said motor is driven and vary the speed thereof.

5. In a piano player the combination of a tracker board and a paper web having perforations therein, said tracker board having an opening therein over which said perforations are adapted to travel, a motor for driving said paper web, an expression device, a valve for connecting said expression device and said motor to said opening in the tracker board by which either or both or neither of said expression device and said motor may be connected to said opening in the tracker board for operation by the paper web.

In testimony whereof I afiix my signature.

ALEXANDER Gr. MARQUIS.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, I). G." 

